This invention relates to agricultural machinery and more particularly to wagons adapted for loading and unloading bales of hay and the like.
One of the most significant advances made in agricultural mechanization over the past two decades was the development of the automatic bale wagon by G. E. Grey. G. E. Grey's bale wagon, commomly referred to as "the basic Grey Wagon" and described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,848,127, is principally adapted for stacking bales and is basically comprised of three tandemly arranged cooperating tables. In operation, the basic Grey wagon functions to pick up bales, form them into a composite stack, and subsequently discharge the entire stack in a storage area. Although the basic Grey wagon has met with wide acceptance especially in the more arid geographical regions where stacking can be done in open space without significant risk of spoilage, there has been an increasing need for the development of a bale wagon having single bale unloading capability, especially among hay farmers in the more humid geographical regions unsuited for open space stacking.
Various approaches have been taken in the development of a single bale unloading wagon. One such approach is represented in U.S. Pat. No. 3,448,879 to C. Van Der Lely. Van Der Lely's wagon, commonly referred to as a "random loading wagon", delivers bales to the wagon in random fashion--not in a composite stack as the basic Grey wagon does. To unload, the floor of the Van Der Lely wagon is driven rearwardly, causing bales to fall into a rear-transverse cross conveyor which conveys the bales to one side of the wagon. The obvious deficiency of this wagon is the lack of orderly control of the load during unloading, due in great part to the random disposition of the loaded bales.
The most successful single bale unloading wagon to date is that shown in U.S. Pat. No. 3,502,230 issued Mar. 24, 1970 to D. M. Grey, et al. This wagon employs the basic Grey three table concept but modifies the intermediate table by adding a cross conveyor and separating mechanism. Briefly pointing out the unloading operation, the stack is moved forwardly in small increments such that a tier at a time is pushed onto the intermediate table. The separating mechanism then separates a row of the tier and the separated row is conveyed transversely from the intermediate table by the cross conveyor. Although successful in most respects, this wagon does have a relatively low load capacity. Moreover, it is noted that the first table, essential for loading, is not utilized during unloading and that the modifications in the intermediate table, essential for unloading, are not utilized during loading.